Call for government action over increased holiday prices during school holidays

[CatherineHMumsnet]

Following the story today on how a father's Facebook rant about how travel companies increase holiday prices during the school holidays encouraged 143,000 people to sign a petition calling for government action, we were wondering what Mumsnetters' opinions were on the subject.

Are you sick of being forced to pay dramatically higher prices to take a holiday when schools are out? Or do you see it, as ABTA do, as a straightforward issue of supply and demand?

[HollyMiamiFLA]

I did write an email to the head explaining the stress and worry this situation has caused. All for one day.

[BabyMummy29]

Supply and demand my arse. It's just a way for travel companies to rip off families with children and teachers, who have no option but to book holidays in term time.

It's high time something was done about this then perhaps parents would not feel they had to take their children out of school in term time for cheap holidays.

[flowery]

No one is getting ripped off. As long as the holiday companies are clear about what you are getting and what the price is, consumers are free to decide whether they are prepared to pay the price quoted for the holiday at the time they wish to go.

It is supply and demand. More people wish to go during school holidays therefore they can charge more. Fewer people wish to go during term time so they have to discount holidays otherwise they won't sell.

[mummymeister]

Babymummy really. what job do you do then that you charge everyone a fair amount for your services and have no seasonality in your pricing. you really think this. do you expect to pay the same for a Gucci handbag as one from M and S? both handbags both made in the same place etc. Supply and demand. the idea of regulating just the UK market is completely bonkers. if you restricted prices here then what about your fortnight in Florida then? you are going to go global and make the whole world and every company in it do this because if you don't then it isn't going to work. don't get ripped off by holiday companies. just don't go on holiday.

[NumptyNameChange]

could mumsnet please recognise that people are way more concerned about government fining of parents for taking their children out of school in term time than they are about holiday prices? i don't expect private companies to care about citizens needs and individual situations i do expect the government to. thomas cook is not an elected body meant to represent citizens the government is. i would rather see mumsnet back a campaign demanding an elected body represented people rather than saw people as a cash cow to be milked than expected thomas cook to be a democratic body. public servants are the ones who need to represent the public.

[BabyMummy29]

mummymeister I'm a teacher, that's why I get so annoyed at being ripped off. Comparing M and S and Gucci products isn't the point I'm making. They are different procucts.

I object to paying nearly twice as much for exactly the same holiday - same flight and hotel at school holiday times.

[bigpigsmum]

So, the government wants folks to go to work...is that everyone? Do they support families where one parent stays at home?

Not really, there is such a high cost of living it isn't really feasible to have a stay at home parent and expect to have a fair quality of life. (I'm sure there are folks out there who enjoy living on mung beans and I respect that, but most parents need to work or want to so they can offer their offspring something better than they had themselves).

So what does the government do? Make it incredibly difficult for parents to work - I'm talking the six weeks holiday? Who exactly does benefit in this long summer vacation? Well lets see, ah, the members of parliament and of course the holiday companies.

Perhaps the real issue to be tackled is breaking up of the holidays into smaller bite sized vacations.

This can then be spread throughout the year,

~Everyone gets a fair crack at the holiday whip when it comes to booking time off, and it can be regional.
~Children don't spend the first two weeks back at school in September re learning everything they were taught before the summer break.
~Parents are able to manage child care.

Of course the simpler answer would be not to have kids, but for those who don't have any who's going to pay for your pension when you retire?

[Panzee]

I'm a teacher and don't care about holiday prices. I decided I was ok with it before I entered the profession. No point getting bitter about holiday companies trying to make a few quid. Especially when they are on the bones of their arses anyway.

[Madamecastafiore]

Why does everyone feel that they are entitled to the obligatory 2 week foreign holiday these days anyway? We never went abroad until I was a teenager and that was quite normal amongst my peers too.

[wordfactory]

baby you're a teacher

And you don't understand supply and demand?

[FannyBazaar]

Supply and demand, can you imagine if all these holidays popular with families of school age children were the same price all year? Yes, people with NO CHILDREN would be booking in advance for the school holidays. They would. Then families would have to book a year in advance or the moment the packages are fixed. Oh yes, can you imagine trying to book a week's packaged holiday in August and having to book 3 years in advance?

You need an incentive for people with no children to book outside of the holidays both so there is availability for families in holidays and because hotels, airlines etc don't just exist in school holidays.

Try not booking as a package. It's often cheaper. Pah! I'm a single parent and would have to pay higher rates for a package in holidays + no free children places which is why I won't consider a package. I can book something reasonable if I book a low cost airline and B&B or self catering apartment.

[BabyMummy29]

You can dress up the term rip-off and call it supply and demand. It's the same thing.

[mummymeister]

BabyMummy. I am not a teacher. I am self employed running my own business and cannot take any time off during school holidays. I can only go on holiday during term time. you are pissed off because you cant take a holiday in school holidays due to cost. I am pissed off because I cannot take a holiday in term time with my kids due to the new law from Mr Gove. this year holidays in school holidays are going to be a lot more expensive because of what Mr Gove has done. you cannot influence the market but you can influence the govt to remove this rule and it will at least make your school holiday holiday a little cheaper.

[HollyMiamiFLA]

Limited products.
Big demand.

If people did not want to take these holidays, the price would go down. It's a competitive market.

I think MN should look at term time fines. Especially for 1 day off school.
Plus proving your child is sick. That's the issue on here.

[BabyMummy29]

I'm glad I live in Scotland and not England as we don't have these fines for parents or too much of Gove's interference.

[mummymeister]

If you live in Scotland then don't you break up a couple of weeks before the rest of us and can get a couple of cheaper weeks then?

[BabyMummy29]

Not really, as holidays from Scottish airports go up in price as soon as we break up. I suppose the only way to get round it would be to leave at the start of our hols, fly down to an English airport and go from there.

[Wallison]

Might be an idea worth thinking about, BabyMummy, depending on how far you are from the border. I know that Manchester airport, for example, has trains running all night to where we are.

[BabyMummy29]

We are midway between Aberdeen and Inverness airports, both of which do flights to all the major English cities. It would also give us a much bigger choice of destinations as our local ones seem to be Tenerife, Turkey or Spain.

[Onefewernow]

Babymummy has it.

[amimagic]

I signed a petition against this awful law change a bit ago which i believe got around 200,000 signatures.

This seems to have sunk without a trace.

Doesn't a petition with that many signatures get debated now? Does anyone know?

[ChocolateWombat]

I am amazed that people think this should have a petition. Government only intervene with the free market determination of prices, when the goods are an absolute social necessity. For example, there have been phases of maximum prices for council housing. There is no way on earth they are goi g to control holiday prices of all things. Whatever next.....telling people selling expensive buggies to lower their prices, telling theatres they cannot charge adult prices for children in theatres, telling legoland to reduce their ticket prices.
None of these things or holidays away are essential or the pricing anything to do with government. Yes holidays in school hols are expensive and some people are priced out of the market. Some people are also priced out of the market for a new car or a bigger house or anything else you care to mention. It's just the reality that some people can afford more stuff than others.
I suspect somehow this is all tied up in people's minds with the fines for taking children out of school in term time. People don't wan to be fined. They don't want to feel they are doing something wrong taking their children out of school for holidays and think if hols were cheaper in holidays they wouldn't have to face fines or feeling bad. I can t afford those holidays in school hols either. I just accept it. It is one of the things that is currently beyond my reach and that's all there is to it. I also cannot afford a new car. Fine. I will continue to save and maybe I will have one next year, or maybe not. But I won't convince myself that this is an evil in society that needs the government to fix it. Or use it to justify taking my children away from their education either.

[TamerB]

When you have children you just have cheaper holidays. We had years of camping, caravanning, holiday cottages in this country. Children are quite happy. I had a child in school for 24 years in total and in all that time we had one week out with the eldest. The youngest couldn't have time out because the eldest was at secondary by the time they started primary.
We managed. I was never taken out for holidays as a child.
Suddenly I can do cheap deals, go away in a September etc. you all get there in the end.
I am rather irritated that we all did it, and managed, and now people wake up to the fact that having children stops cheap deals and want holiday companies to change their pricing.
Schools work fixed times. Staggering holidays make it impossible for families with children or teachers in the family in different counties. I can just see the fuss if teachers were missing for a week in term time. The outcry would be horrendous with 'their holidays are too long anyway'! If teachers are perceived to have hugely long holidays with ample time to go away it can't be different for children who get the same.
The only thing that I disagree with is that I think the Head should be able to use discretion and grant time to those with a good attendance record when parents can't get away at those times.

[flowery]

"I am amazed that people think this should have a petition. Government only intervene with the free market determination of prices, when the goods are an absolute social necessity."

Yes indeed, and some supposedly intelligent people also!

By all means campaign against restrictions on taking children out if you think that should be allowed, but thinking that either the holiday companies are providing some kind of social service and should therefore lower their prices out of the goodness of their heart, or that the government should start interfering in free market prices for luxuries is naive at best and shows a complete inability to think things through logically and lack of understanding about what either of those scenarios would actually mean.

[TamerB]

Places like Cornwall are living on their deposits over the winter! If they want visitors in January they have to give deals and be inventive as to what they offer. In August they can charge higher prices and don't have to be inventive, there are beaches, walks, sailing, surfing etc etc etc
Of course they can charge more, I have tried to book a holiday cottage on the coast in April and found them fully booked.
Supply and demand. Petitions can't change that.